People Strategy 2007 - 2011

The next few years represent a continuing period of development and change for the Council. As an organisation we need to ensure that we achieve our aim of being an ‘employer of choice’ and are able to recruit high quality staff who can contribute effectively to our vision for the future of Cambridge. We need to ensure that we have the employment policies, procedures and organisational structures in place to support the management of change and the delivery of our objectives.

Our corporate improvement plan includes actions to support organisational development and change management within the Council.

We have some very good services on which to build, but this does not mean we are not striving to improve continually. We want to streamline and improve our business processes and simplify the way that we work to provide higher quality, more joined up and more cost effective services.

Our Customer Access Strategy is an example of how we are planning to do this, by introducing a more corporate and centralised approach to managing our customer services. This is a major change for the organisation – both a change to how we are organised and to the culture we want to foster.

This is just one example of change the City Council is making; the growth of the sub-region and an increased focus on partnership working will bring many more.

To meet these challenges we rely on the talent, enthusiasm and commitment of our employees. Our People Strategy explains how we will recruit, reward and develop our staff to reach their full potential and help ensure the City Council achieves its aim to provide the best possible service to the people of Cambridge .

Cambridge City Council is one of the City’s largest employers, with 1150 staff.
Over a quarter (around £38m) of the Council’s annual budget is spent on people related costs. We have held Investor in People status since 1995 and have achieved Chartermark in a
number of our front-line services, as well as recognition for levels of excellence in several
of our support services. We have won awards for Workforce Development and our work
on Diversity.

To equip the organisation to meet the challenges of changing and unpredictable circumstances, we must:

• Develop our ability to plan ahead to attract, develop and retain the necessary skills and
knowledge we need to succeed.
• Build capacity by developing the full potential of our employees.
• Encourage and welcome innovation.
• Be flexible and responsive to opportunities, responding to change in an agile way.
• Focus on achieving the highest standards of performance.
• Do more to diversify our workforce.
• Increase our ability to influence and negotiate to enable us to work effectively
with partners.
• Drive down costs wherever possible, making technology work for us.
• Communicate with and engage all staff in the changing organisation

Delivery of the Strategy is not exclusively the responsibility of the Human Resources Department. There are actions within it that we look to our managers and all our employees to commit to delivering to ensure success.

Achieving equality and celebrating diversity is a thread that runs through the entire framework and features in the actions and success measures of each strategic theme. The City Council’s commitment to diversity is reinforced by the actions contained within our Race, Disability and Gender Equality Schemes and our overarching Comprehensive Equalities Programme.

People Strategy